The New South Wales bus industry is calling for “urgent action” following the recent release of the state’s Auditor-General’s bus contracts report.
The Performance Audit Report on metropolitan Sydney’s bus contracts highlighted ongoing concerns about driver shortages, contract constraints and operational challenges.
BusNSW executive director Matt Threlkeld says the report reflects what operators have been experiencing on the ground in recent years.
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“The chronic driver shortages throughout 2023 and 2024 significantly impacted services and this report reaffirms the clear link between the percentage of cancelled and incomplete trips and the bus driver shortage,” Threlkeld says.
The report also identifies issues with contract conditions and Transport for NSW’s contract management approach, which has restricted operators from responding to changing traffic patterns, patronage levels and congestion.
“Sydney’s transport landscape has changed dramatically post-COVID, but operators are still locked into contract conditions that prevent them from making timetable adjustments to improve service reliability,” Threlkeld says.
“The report demonstrates what the industry has been saying in regard to COVID-19 related impacts on the network including the driver shortage, changes to traffic and travelling patterns as people continue to work from home and increasing traffic congestion due to a move away from public transport.”
The report also acknowledges the increasing volume of customer complaints and the challenge for operators in addressing them within existing contract frameworks.
“The Auditor General concluded that it may be difficult for individual operators to address the root causes of customer complaints about punctuality, overcrowding and cancelled trips in the short term, as they have little control over timetables, patronage numbers and traffic congestion,” Threlkeld says.
Additionally, the report reinforces previous findings of the NSW Bus Industry Taskforce regarding the outdated Public Transport Information and Priority System, citing a Transport for NSW business case which notes the real-time bus tracking system has inherent limitations.
“We are concerned that a decades-old system, set to be replaced for improved operational data, is still used to impose financial penalties on operators despite low confidence in its accuracy from both the industry and TfNSW,” Threlkeld says.
“It is pleasing that Transport for NSW’s response to the Auditor-General’s report commits to advancing technology upgrades to replace outdated systems, improve real-time bus tracking, and deliver more reliable information to customers.”
BusNSW urges Transport for NSW to act on the report’s recommendations and work closely with industry to implement meaningful reforms that improve service reliability, contract flexibility, and customer outcomes.
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